I have been experimenting on the Business Simulation game Capitalism II. I wanted to discuss the genre with anyone that's tried it.

Monopolies are, for the most part, too easy to obtain, because there are only small pin-points where resources can be found, and the competitors aren't aggressive enough to beat you there. There also shouldn't be a way to act while the time is paused (because in real business, there is no such way).

I also think it would be more realistic if the success of R&D was less consistent, or perhaps even random.

I had an old version called Capitalism Plus; similar I think to what you described, probably the previous version.

It was not too hard to gain monopolies, if you set up your business right. I lost interest in it after awhile, because it was either too easy or impossible to win. Not much excitement in watching virtual dollars pile up, or staring at the "you lost" screen.

I also think it would be more realistic if the success of R&D was less consistent, or perhaps even random.

And the farms and mines always producing consistent amounts and quality of product from day one? :)

One of the big things was the lack of competition on the suppliers part. Usually there was only one supplier for any one item, unless you produced it yourself; and there was almost no choice in advertisers (TV or Newspaper? Only one of each; no other channels, no magazines, no independent talk radio hosts to sponsor, no Goodyear blimp = not enough variety!).

It was a rather simple game, in some ways; handicapped it in my opinion.